Marin Voice: Every child deserves the ‘same opportunities I received’

I will always be grateful that I had a role model who helped me understand that education is the gateway to opportunity. The young woman did not speak from personal experience. Just the opposite. She was my mother and she spoke from the experience of someone who dropped out of high school and became pregnant with me at age 15.

There was never any doubt that I and my seven younger brothers and sisters would receive the best possible education. There were uncertainties about where we lived and how to make ends meet, but our mother made sure of one certainty — we would be dedicated to school and to our job as students.

This gift inspired me and led to my commitment to seeing that every child receives the same opportunities I received. This has been my goal since the first day I stepped into a classroom as an educator and it remains my commitment to you today as I ask for the privilege of continuing to serve as Marin County superintendent of schools.

This is a time of great opportunity and challenge for our schools. These will be some of my key areas of action over the next four years:

• Ensuring that all students have access to high-quality child care and preschool. A strong start is the best way to foster future school success and eliminate the achievement gap before it starts. I will continue our work on developmental appropriate play-based practices, family workshops and academic support, especially for the 10 Marin schools serving students with the highest needs.

• Recruiting, supporting and retaining the best teachers for our schools. New programs are providing local teacher credentialing opportunities to non-teaching staff working in our schools. Career academies are introducing young people to professions in education. We can grow a teaching corps right here in Marin that reflects the growing diversity of our community.

• Collaborating with health partners, law enforcement and community groups to maintain safe and secure schools. Drugs and alcohol use, bullying and mental health challenges will continue to be met head on with effective preventative education and research-based intervention programs.

• Fostering innovation, curiosity and creativity in our schools. Teaching children what to learn has shifted to teaching them how to learn and how to evaluate readily available information. Career Pathways, internships in the work place, integration of technology,

and project-based learning encouraging critical thinking are all essential to education today.

• Managing $28 million in grants we have brought into our community supporting math and science strategies, teacher quality, substance abuse prevention, homeless and foster youth, Special Education, and college and career readiness programs for all students.

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• Safeguarding tax dollars and utilizing funding as efficiently as possible, and, when in the best interests of our students, sharing and consolidating services among districts.

As we confront issues of equity and social justice in Marin, I pledge to work tirelessly to build an inclusive climate in all schools where all students are empowered socially and academically to succeed in school and life.

I learned at an early age that parents are the first and best teachers. I saw it with my own eyes as a child. I saw it again as a young woman when my mother received her high school diploma the very year I received my degree from Dominican University.

With her inspiration in mind, I will do all I can to see that every child receives the education I want for my own children and grandchildren. This is at the heart of my life’s work, and it will continue to be so if I am re-elected as your superintendent of schools.